World denounces North Korea nuclear test

The Western world is once again hoping China will lean on its bellicose ally, North Korea, and prevent it developing a credible nuclear weapon, after the North proclaimed its third test on Tuesday. It will once again be disappointed.

This is not because Xi Jinping, China's new leader, enjoys watching his 29-year-old neighbour, Kim Jong-un, brandish a toy that could obliterate Beijing as readily as Tokyo or Seoul. Tuesday's test took the Disney-loving dictator closer to a miniaturised warhead that can be fitted to his ballistic missiles.

Rather, Beijing and Pyongyang are locked in a loveless dance of shared history, common enemies and domestic political and dynastic imperatives from which neither can easily escape. China protects and nourishes its wayward neighbour as if they were ''as close as lips and teeth'', an old expression of Mao's that has come back into vogue. But it has always been more a grimace than a smile.

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''North Korea has always been an untrustworthy nation, China has given it so much aid. It really is a weird state,'' says Zhang Liangui, one of Beijing's leading Korea experts.

And yet the dance continues much as it began in 1950, when the direct boss of Mr Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, led the Chinese troops who saved Kim Il-sung from annihilation in the Korean War.

New archive research in Moscow and Beijing shows how Kim convinced Stalin to let him invade the South, wrongly calculating that then US president Harry Truman would not intervene.

It also shows how Stalin cornered Mao into stumping up the troops. Relations between the three dictators never recovered and the dynamics of the Cold War were set in stone.

China lost 200,000 troops, including Mao's favourite son, in pushing the American-led forces back down to the 38th parallel. But those dead Chinese soldiers do not feature in any North Korean museum, according to Chinese historian Shen Zhihua. China has been airbrushed from North Korean history to make room for the heroic and nation-defining deeds of Kim Il-sung. Airbrushing history, however, is something Chinese leaders can understand.

From China's side of the Yalu River border, the Korean War was imposed on the Chinese people by ''imperialist invaders'', as Mr Xi put it in a 60th-anniversary speech to veterans and troops in 2010. One of history's most costly and pointless military stalemates was ''a great victory in the pursuit of world peace and human progress'', he said.

There is no trust or affection between Beijing and Pyongyang, but they do have an alliance that was forged with ''blood and steel'', as veterans like to put it, resisting ''American aggression''.

The old Cold War patterns of great power rivalry, existential fear and buffer states are re-emerging in more complex form today. Beijing is again locked in a contest with Washington for regional influence, or domination, and Pyongyang is one of its only strategic friends.

Mr Xi would like to demonstrate who has the upper hand in the relationship. He may even enjoy inflicting a modicum of pain. But the gentle tap on the wrist he gave his recalcitrant ally on Tuesday night - ''all sides'' should respond ''calmly, through talks'' - shows the underlying strategic calculus remains unchanged.

In any case, Chinese analysts are convinced North Korea will not give up its nuclear program.

16 comments

I do not trust the Chinese. Always looking out for themselves first, and don't really give stuff about the rest of the world.

Commenter

Uh oh

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 7:26AM

Sounds like a long standing ally of ours.

Commenter

Luke

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 8:57AM

The preferred option, which the US refused was disarmament. get rid of all nukes.The next best option is to get as wide a spread as possible of nuclear armed nations. With enough nukes out there, there is no 'balance', Nobody can be sure as to who is backing whom. Stalemate! A certain grossly over muscled bully will then have to watch its behaviour very carefully. Relative peace in the world, a reduction in gratuitous interference in other countries affairs.

Everything about this is positive.

Commenter

Peter hindrup

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 9:56AM

Nth Korea with nukes is like Jack the Ripper with a knife. They are stupid enough to use them.

Commenter

Bazza

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 10:21AM

Nutters N Korea may well be, but with the US backing Japan over the 5 or so rocks atop all that oil and gas one can understand why China is acting as it is.If the US cannot act with the utmost in diplomacy over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands I sense the mother of all occurring in the region. N Korea are paranoid and I guess have every right to be armed as a deterrence.Just hope no one pushes the button, anywhere.

Commenter

A country gal

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 11:57AM

@A country gal, I think you nailed it! If there is any country that is most untrustworthy, N Korea must be right at the top of the list - there is no way that China enjoy watching Nth Korea turn into a nuke monster, but then, a "gentle slap on the wrist" attitude says a lot more about China's reaction to Uncle Sam's aggressive push into east Asia than anything else. China is very much backed into a corner by USA's "Asia Pivot" with virtually no allies in the region other than Nth Korea, whilst they do not enjoy watching Nth Korea's nuke test, they do enjoy watching someone else give the Japs and Yanks something to think about. Most of China's neighbours such as India, Vietnam, Japan, Phillipines all have territorial disputes with China, these countries are claiming territories that have been on the Chinese Map for centuries, so they are the actually the "bullies" here, they want the resources under the rocks, but don't have the muscles to bully China, of course they would love the Yanks to push into that region, and the Yanks are using their disputes with China as a perfect excuse for their Asia Pivot policy. There will always be trouble if USA keeps throwing its weight in the region.

Commenter

Meekmode

Location

WildWest

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 12:37PM

It is wise not to forget history as those that do are doomed to repeat it. Korea was one country before the US and Russia divided it up between themselves at the end of the Second World War. So an "invasion" of the South by the North is a pretty significant torture of language. How can one part of a country invade another part. It was in fact a civil war that was created and sustained by the great powers at the time. North Korea, however unpleasant a regime it may be, is simply developing a nuclear weapons capability to prevent the US from invading it. To believe that it has intentions to attack any other significant power with these weapons in an aggressive war is also to stretch credibility beyond it's capacity to resist.

To do so would invite instant annihilation and the regime there has shown no particular interest in such a future.

Commenter

Lesm

Location

Balmain

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 12:09PM

lesm

Have they changed the water supply in Balmain lately? Surely your reason for NK developing its nuclear program is up there with the fairies.

Commenter

$keptic

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 1:21PM

$keptic,

Any arguments to present or just trolling????????

Commenter

Lesm

Location

Balmain

Date and time

February 14, 2013, 1:53PM

The US has nukes but they are at this precise moment not dropping them on North Korea. As soon as they have the nuclear armed ballistic missiles capbale of reaching the mainland US then Kim will be firing them. There's no reasoning or thought process , they will just fire them without any understanding of the US nuclear response, and that pretty much is the rub. So ask yourselves again if you think they should be allowed their "Nuclear Deterance" against the agressive United States